Kaaso nro 1

I’ve never considered myself as a sock knitter… but lately my collaborations have been all about socks. How did this happen?

Well my resent collaboration started actually quite some time ago; in the spring of 2019. (Right after the release of my Viisukat pattern.) My colleague was getting married and I got the honor of designing socks for her Maids of Honor.

I made some mood boards from where she picked the one that was most to her liking. And it was the one that I had imagined in my head to be some lace socks. (I can’t find the mood boards anywhere, so they might be somewhere in my previous lap top that gave up just after releasing Viisukat.)

Our next stop was a yarn shop: Ilo Finlad. There my colleague picked up the colours I would be using: soft pink, soft gray and white. Not the colours I would have choose… so it was a challenge for me to get in a romantic designing mood and come up with a pattern for soft pastel colours that would also include some lace.

The first pair got the name Kaaso nro 1 – Maid of Honor No 1:

When Sukka-Finlandia announced that they were looking for sock patterns for the contest of 2021, I knew I wanted to submit Kaaso nro 1.

That meant I had to finally write up the pattern! This time I also navigated to Ilo Finland and got the most lovely Aara Yarn Mieli for my socks. Since the design was originally something romantic, I wanted to use coulours as close as possible to the original pair. So the colours that I chose were Kriikuna as main colour, Helmi as contrasting coulour no 1 and Luja as contrasting colour no 2. – It should be noted that for the contrasting colours the smaller mini skeins are enough.

The socks are knitted toe up using Magic loop and the pattern includes these special techniques: figure 8 CO, intarsia, intarsia in the round, Tubular BO as well as some embroidery. So this is definitely an advanced pattern.

This new pair of Kaaso nro 1 sock in the luxurious hand dyed Aara Yarn Mieli is my favorite so far:

But you have to check out all the different and interesting colour combinations that the contestants of Sukka-Finlandia 2021 have come up with! They can be found here on Ravelry and on Instagram with #KaasoNro1 – I’ve also collected a gallery of the contestants socks to my Instagram account and it can be found right under my bio.

 

Sukka-Finlandia has so far exclusive right for the pattern, but I’m planning to release it later also in English.

My favorite techniques: Intarsia

Back in 2013 I got an idea that challenged me to learn a new knitting technique: intarsia. The blog post about it is here. – And I fell in love with the technique and all the possibilities it gave me for designing.

Since that first project I’ve made few intarsia designs that I’m still pretty proud of: my all time favorite “Still Panda” that combines Veera Välimäkis pattern Still Light and my own motif from Panda.

Another one that I’m still very proud of is “Pikselimössö” (that is still on the draft board…). My craziest idea so far and you can see on my Ravelry project page why it still is a crazy idea with all the bobbins :D

But who knows how many more crazy intarsia ideas I still get with a quite an easy technique at the end of the day. Check this video and see for yourself that intarsia isn’t that hard:

On RS: K until colour change; cross the two yarns in the back of work (WS of work) and cont to K with new colour.

On WS: P until colour change; cross the two yarns in front of work (WS of work) and cont to P with new colour.

My favorite techniques: Japanese short rows

I’ve only recently discovered and felled in love with the Japanese way of making short rows. There’s not any big different to the more common W&T, where you wrap yarn around the next stitch. But for my loose knitting the Japanese style makes a neater outcome: instead of wrapping yarn around the next stitch, you’ll wrap the yarn around the needle.

Japanese short rows on RS

On RS of your work you’ll K to the turning point, turn work, wrap the yarn around RH needle and cont to P. – When working wrapped sts tog you’ll K2tog with the st on the left side of the wrapped st.

Japanese short rows on WS

On WS of your work you’ll P to the turning point, turn work and wrap the yarn around RH needle and cont to K. – When working wrapped sts tog you’ll make a ssp with the st on the left side of the wrapped st.

I’ve figured out that this style works with my loose knitting ‘cause it keeps my yarn tension constant.

My favorite techniques: twisted rib

 I’ve been a long time fan for twisted rib. I prefer it simply because it gives a nice and stretchy, yet a firm edge for knits. And in my opinion a twisted rib recovers best its original shape after stretching.

Twisted rib with K1tbl, P1tbl sts:

Twisted rib in a yarn with a tight spin might not feel as nice against your skin as in a yarn with a looser spin. To avoid this kind of uncomfortable detail I usually knit twisted rib for sock and sleeve cuffs, that comes tight against your sensitive skin, with a “twist”: on RS rep *K1tbl, P1* and on WS rep *K1, P1tbl*:

This way stitches on WS are a bit softer and smoother against the skin.